Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Today, Grace of Mango Baby presented her line of mei tais.MangoBaby mei tais have the beauty and asthetic of a traditional Chinese mei tai, yet have some of the comforts of a modern mei tai, such as longer straps and larger body. Grace presented a little of her ethic behind her product, as well as her design considerations.

Everyone dove in and had a go at learning front and back carries. As well as how to use the traditional “twist and tuck” method of securing the mei tai’s straps.

Grace and Shira demonstrated how to safely transfer children of various ages onto the back. I’m a little wimpier and not as practiced and showed the others how to use the sit down method that I commonly use.

I really appreciated the thought and respect Grace puts into her designs. They are very well-constructed and have a deep representation of Chinese babywearing history through both the structure and the designs.

We also talked a bit about other forms of asian-style babycarriers, such as the onbuhimo and podaegi.